CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
RELIABILITY AND LONG TIME BEHAVIOUR OF MV-DISTRIBUTION SWITCHGEAR IN
SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS - EXAMINATION OF SF6-INSULATED RING MAIN
UNITS (RMU) UP TO 20 YEARS IN SERVICE.
B. I. Oftedal, Siemens AS Norway. - Email: Bjoern.Oftedal@siemens.com
H. Späck, Siemens AG Germany - Email: Helmut.Spaeck@siemens.com
Summary
SF6 insulated RMUs are designed and tested for operation
in severe environmental conditions and have proven its
reliability on thousands of units in service since 1983.
International standards give only limited recommendations
of how to test switchgears for special and severe
environmental conditions and which risks have to be
considered for an expected life time of more than 30 years.
To accumulate field experience, tests are carried out on
switchgears which were operated up to 20 years in different
regions in the world. Such tests include e.g. dielectric tests,
mechanical tests or dew point measurements inside the SF6
compartments.
One of the examined 24kV-RMU was in service
continuously from 1985 to 2000 on the south west coast of
Norway with salty atmosphere and has been used since
2000 also in sandy and traffic atmosphere after moving in a
substation for temporary installation.
The investigations were performed in July/August 2004 in
the Testing Laboratory Medium Voltage Frankfurt am
Main, Germany.
In detail, the following tests were carried out:
- Checking the condition of the gas.
- Checking the condition of the electrical contacts.
- Dielectric tests including partial discharge measurement.
- Mechanical tests.
- Visual inspection on the SF6-vessel and mechanical
parts, e.g. for corrosion.
The examination showed a good condition of the primary
circuit, the SF6-tank and the other materials. The insulating-
gas itself has got minimal humidity with a dew point of less
than -30°C.
Out of this examination we can derive a conclusion that the
RMU will have an expected life time which is much longer
than 30 years. It also shows that the chosen design and the
intensive aging tests, e.g. according to IEC 60932 are
suitable to prove the long time behaviour for switchgear in
severe environmental conditions.
CIRED2005
Session No 1
Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005
Introduction
Gas-insulated medium-voltage switchgear is a long-life
capital good and an integral part of modern power
distribution systems.
This type of switchgear is an environmentally compatible
product in comparison with conventional switchgear,
mainly because of
- small switchgear design,
- no maintenance is required,
- long life time and
- minimal requirements for the installation room.
RMUs [1] came into the market in 1983 and have been in
service under severe environmental conditions in many
countries e.g. in Indonesia, the Middle East or in Norway
since then.
RMUs for long time operation in severe environmental
conditions have to be specially designed and tested.
International standards give only limited recommendations
of how to test the switchgear for special and severe
environmental conditions and which risk have to be
considered.
Therefore it is necessary
- to have a proper design with less inherent risks,
- to use excellent and proven materials and manufacturing
techniques, even though it is partly more expensive,
- to perform additional tests to verify the long time
behaviour of switchgear and to compare the results with
field experience,
- to control and improve the design and manufacturing
as a continuous process.
Some of the additional tests are:
- Measurement of permeation of water vapour through
insulating and tightening materials.
- Dew point measurements at switchgears after years of
operation in severe environmental conditions.
- Temperature cycle test on bushings and other insulating
parts for investigation of internal mechanical stresses.
- Ageing tests according to IEC 60932 [6] for complete
switchgear panels.
- Intensified temperature/humidity cycle tests for corrosion
investigation on mechanical parts.
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
Classification of environmental conditions and
environmental tests in the standards
Basically different degrees of environmental conditions are
described in IEC 60721 [4]. On the other hand
environmental tests are defined in IEC 60068 series [5].
But at the moment there is no standard to recommend
environmental and climatic tests to evaluate the usability of
medium voltage switchgears in severe environmental
conditions.
Gas insulated RMUs are designed in accordance with IEC
62271-200 [3] (former IEC60298).
This includes the common requirements of IEC 60694 [2],
especially normal “indoor service conditions” with
occasional dewing inside the switchgear.
For severe environmental conditions, exceeding the limits
of IEC 60694, these conditions have to be agreed between
the manufacturer and the user. Such severe conditions
which are typical for RMUs in transformer substations
could be
- tropical climate with high humidity,
high temperatures, small animals,
- frequent dewing or
- salt fog at coastal areas.
The main effect of these severe environmental conditions is
an accelerated ageing of the installed switchgear.
IEC 60932 [6] describes two procedures for testing the
ageing behaviour of medium voltage switchgear used in
severe climatic conditions: penetration test and ageing test.
Depending on the test result, the switchgear is classified
according to ”design classes”. The highest level is ”design
class 2”.
During the temperature/humidity cycles the test object is
energized by the rated voltage and the leakage current is
measured. The standard stipulates that no breakdown
should occur. Before and after the temperature/humidity
cycles characteristic mechanical values are measured to
evaluate the functional performance of driving mechanisms
of switching devices.
If the switchgear has passed the ageing or penetration test
level 2 and is classified as ”design class 2”, the switchgear
is assumed to operate satisfactorily in severe environmental
conditions.
Because of the difficulties to design switchgear for ”design
class 2” and the limited necessity of such switchgear in the
past, IEC 60932 was not applied very often.
According to the customer requirements, different
manufacturers have carried out their own additional
environmental tests which simulate single or combined
environmental duties. The problem to be solved is to
transfer the test results of the accelerated climatic or ageing
tests to real life time expectation. A good method to do this
is to compare the test results with observed real ageing
processes.
CIRED2005
Session No 1
Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005
Risks of operation for medium voltage switchgear
in severe environmental conditions
Deterioration of insulation
From the past the most important risk is the deterioration of
the insulation which can be caused by
- ageing of the insulating materials due to high humidity
and pollution,
- appearance of cracks in insulating parts,
- changes in conductive screening layers or
- permeation of water vapour into the gas compartment
through sealing materials.
These phenomena have not only to be considered in severe
environmental conditions, they have to be considered in
normal operating conditions, too. Long time partial
discharges and leakage currents destroy the insulation and
have to be avoided.
Reliability of driving mechanisms
The reliability of driving mechanisms of the switching
devices is mainly affected by corrosion effects and by wear
of mechanical parts, e.g. fatigue of springs. Statistics show
that mechanical defects are one of the most important
reasons for outages of switching devices. Avoiding this
corrosion shall be considered as an essential requirement in
order to apply medium voltage switchgear in severe
environmental conditions.
Tightness of gas insulated switchgear
The tightness of gas insulated switchgear is characterized
by leakage rates and diffusion effects. The leakage rate of
the switchgear should be as small as possible.
If the switchgear has gaskets, the interaction of the different
materials in the tightening system needs special
consideration. Corrosion in very small slits must be
avoided. If gaskets are used for tightening of moving parts
it has to be ensured that no untightness appears when
moving these parts after years of no operation.
All polymeric insulating or tightening materials have
certain permeation behaviour for different gases, like water
vapour. This permeation is driven by the relative high water
vapour pressure outside the gas compartment and the low
water vapour pressure inside the compartment. To avoid
inadmissible dewing inside the gas compartment, resulting
in deterioration of insulating properties, the permeation of
water should be minimized.
Therefore it is important to minimize the number and
length and the permeation area of the gasket arrangements
and to use material with very low permeation coefficients
for water vapour for all components of the SF6 enclosure.
Experience shows that this problem was not known during
introduction of the first medium voltage gas insulated
switchgear. The gas compartment was tight for SF6 but a
continuous increase of humidity inside the gas
compartment had been observed.
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005

Activities to eliminate risks of operation of

switchgear in severe environmental conditions
Some of the general activities are:
- Designing and testing of the switchgear with experienced
engineers and approved processes.
- Use of proven material and manufacturing methods.
- Periodically repeated tests on switchgear panels or
components besides the routine tests, to ensure the high
quality level.
- The analysis of faults is used to improve the switchgear
design and to derive means to avoid faults in the future.
- Accumulating field experience by inspection or testing of
switchgear which was in service for many years in different
regions of the world either in the test lab or on site, e.g.
mechanical tests or partial discharge measurements.
One unit of RMU type 8DJ10 has been operated in an
outdoor installation inside the test lab area in Frankfurt for
nearly 15 years and has been checked periodically for
electrical and mechanical behaviour.
- Continuous improvement of design and manufacturing
methods according to technical advances.

Basic design
Fig. 1 shows the sectional view of a typical 8DJ RMU with
the main components.
The heart of the switchgear is the gas-filled “sealed-for-
life” compartment with the switching devices, bars,
electrical and mechanical bushings. To avoid any tightness
problems, the vessel is made of stainless-steel and
completely welded without any sealed openings. Fig. 1 Sectional view of a 8DJ RMU

Metal bellows are used as mechanical bushings for 1 Upper bushing for the HV HRC fuse assembly
operating the three-position switch as well as the SF6 2 Connecting bars in the switchgear vessel
ready-for-service indicator, which is moved by a magnetic 3 Three-position switch disconnector with
system at both sides of the vessel wall. The electrical make proof earthing function
bushings for cable connections are made of epoxy cast 4 Switchgear vessel, hermetically welded
resin and completely welded into the vessel. and filled with SF6 gas
6 Transport lug
The pressure relief device is also welded into the vessel.
7 HV HRC Fuse box
Even the pipe for evacuating and filling the gas
8 Grip at sealing cover for handling the
compartment with SF6 is welded after the tightness test and
HV HRC fuse box
the filling procedure.
9 Cover of HV HRC fuse assembly
Securing the insulation properties 10 Operating mechanism for the three-position
switch disconnector
Besides securing the tightness of the gas compartment and 11 Control board
avoiding of inadmissible permeation of water vapour into 12 Detachable lever mechanism
it, one important task is to minimize internal mechanical 13 Bushing for cable connector
stresses within the components of the gasinsulated 14 Cable plugs
enclosure. If internal mechanical stresses are superimposed 15 Cable connection compartment
with normal service stresses and ageing, cracks can occur 16 Cable compartment cover
in the insulating components, partly after years. 17 Cable brackets
Consequently, partial discharges, break downs and leakage
may occur.

CIRED2005

Session No 1
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
Therefore the gas compartment is made of tough stainless
steel with bushings containing a minimum of cast resin.
The selected special composition of cast resin, the
automatic mixing process and several routine tests after
manufacturing ensure that components have very low
internal mechanical stresses.
Some of the routine tests are
- X-ray test for cracks and shrinking holes,
- partial discharge measurement,
- temperature cycle test from – 40°C up to + 80°C
on a certain amount of bushings.
Partial discharge measurements
Partial discharges within polymeric materials and on
surfaces can cause electrical treeing and deterioration of
insulating properties (electrical ageing).
The current knowledge about the effects of partial
discharges is not sufficient for standardizing common
technical limits.
Therefore there has been set up an own standard with the
basic requirement that during normal service no partial
discharge should occur.
Limits for partial discharge rates:
Components Complete
switchgear
at 1.1 Ur ≤ 5pC ≤ 20pC
at 1.1 Ur/√3 partial discharge free
(lower than the ground level)
The test procedure is in accordance with IEC 62271-200.
The experience of more than 20 years of gas-insulated MV-
switchgear in service confirms that these limits are well
chosen from the practical point of view. Compared with
standards of other high voltage equipment, e.g. power
transformers or instrument transformers, this standard is
very demanding.
Ageing test according to IEC 60932
The RMUs have passed this ageing test and are classified
as ”design class 2”, applicable for severe climatic
conditions. At the driving mechanisms of the switching
devices no significant corrosion occurred. The moving
characteristics of the mechanisms were not changed.
Securing the reliability of the driving mechanism
Since the relevant switchgear standards give no
requirements concerning the long time behaviour in severe
environmental conditions, these capabilities are verified by
- condensation tests according to DIN 50017,
- condensation tests with SO2 acc. to DIN EN ISO 6988,
- salt fog test according to DIN 50021,
- intensified temperature/humidity cycle tests similar
to IEC 60068-2-30.
The purpose of these tests is to find out the most suitable
CIRED2005
Session No 1
Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005
materials and surfaces for mechanical parts.
On the other hand, the transfer of test results of high duty
short time corrosion tests to the long time behaviour of the
switchgear cannot be made easily because of special
conditions at the different switchgear locations.
RMUs which came back to the factory after years of
service at tropical and coastal areas, in substations with
water in the cable duct or in open air installation were
investigated with regard to corrosion effects.
The results were compared to the above mentioned
corrosion tests showing that the most severe climatic duty
results from frequent dewing in the switchgear at high
ambient temperatures. A common rule of chemistry says
that an increase of temperature of about 10K makes the
corrosion speed double.
Derived from experience, there has been defined an
intensified temperature/humidity cycle test similar to IEC
60068 series for further improving of the switchgear with
- temperature cycle from - 5°C up to + 80°C,
- at a relative humidity of 93%,
- 12 cycles with a cycle time of 24 hours.
This test was carried out on “normal” and “improved”
driving mechanisms with test results as follows:
- Corrosion effects as known from the practical experience
of operation in very severe environmental conditions
appear after 3 to 5 temperature/humidity cycles.
- After having performed about 12 cycles the corrosion is
much stronger than known from real switchgear
observation.
- The improved type of driving mechanism at which all
parts are zinc-coated and have a special surface treatment
do not show any significant corrosion effects after 12
cycles.
- After the temperature/humidity cycle test all investigated
improved drives operate without any objections from the
test engineers.
Securing the tightness of the gas compartment
minimizing the permeation of water vapour
Especially the concept of the “hermetically sealed
enclosure” with the completely welded stainless-steel
vessels prevents inadmissible diffusion of insulating gas to
the outside and ingress of water vapour to the inside.
To ensure the high quality, the following tests are used:
- 100% leakage test with helium of all components before
welded in with a permissible leakage rate of 10-7mbarl/s
- Integral leakage measurement with 1 bar helium of the
complete gas compartments with a permissible leakage rate
of 10-6mbarl/s; this means a pressure reduction of the
insulating gas is far less than 0.1 % per year.
- To ensure the stability of the gas vessel due to the daily
pressure fluctuations, pressure changing tests with 10 000
load cycles have been carried out on typical arrangements
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
with a leakage test at the end of the tests.
- Measurements of permeation rates were made with
components, e.g. bushings. In order to accelerate the
permeation velocity, the test objects were stored in a
climatic chamber at a temperature of 80°C and a relative
humidity of 85%. This corresponds to a partial pressure of
water vapour of about 400 mbar. The permeation
coefficient was determined by measuring the pressure rise
in the small compartments of the test objects. By means of
these test results, the water vapour permeation for e.g.
tropical climate can be calculated.
- Dew point measurements were carried out on several
panels of 8DJ load break switchgear which came back to
the switchgear factory after years of operation. The
measured dew points were all below -30°C. The
measurements confirm the above mentioned test and
calculation results of water vapour permeation.
Examination of a RMU after 19 years of service in
Norway
Transformer Substation with RMU
A typical substation used in Norway in 1985 is shown in
Fig. 2, which also was used for the examined RMU.
Fig. 2: Transformer substation with RMU
The typical features of this type of substation are
- sheet steel structure with wooden planking,
- doors of sheet steel without thermal insulation,
- condensation can occur inside the substation frequently,
- small oil-filled transformer with low load,
- ventilation via natural openings; salt fog and
dust can enter the substation,
- ingress of moisture via not sealed cable entry
points of the substation.
Ring Main Unit
The 24kV RMU type 8DJ10 selected for examination was
CIRED2005
Session No 1
Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005
in service continuously from 1985 to 2000 on the south
west coast of Norway with salty atmosphere and has been
used since 2000 also in a sandy and traffic atmosphere after
moving in a substation for temporary installation.
The substation was installed in a normal distribution
network. During its lifetime the three-position switch of the
8DJ10 was operated only a few times.The ring-main
feeders normally will be operated after faults in the
network, e.g. for selection of earth faults. The trans-former
feeder will be operated for maintenance of the transformer
or for works on the LV compartment of the substation.
The switchgear was manufactured at the Switchgear
Factory in Frankfurt am Main, the Siemens Centre of
Competence for gas-insulated medium-voltage switchgears.
Test results
The investigations were carried out in July/August 2004 in
the Testing Laboratory Medium Voltage Frankfurt am
Main, Germany which is independent and has been
accredited by DATech (German Accreditation Body
Technology) and PEHLA according to the standard
ISO/IEC 17025.
Dielectric tests including partial discharge measurement
High-voltage tests were performed with the uncleaned
RMU according to DIN EN 60271-200 [3] with 80% of the
test voltages for factory new switchgears:
- Power frequency voltage test 50 Hz, 40 kV / 1 min.
between phases and to earth and across the contact gap
- Lightning impulse voltage test 1,2 / 50 µs, 100 kV
of the three-position switch-disconnector.
between phases and to earth and across the contact gap
of the three-position switch-disconnector.
- Then additionally rated power-frequency voltage test
50 Hz, 50 kV / 1 min. between phases and to earth and
across the contact gap of the three-position switch-
disconnector.
All tests were passed successfully.
The partial discharge test was done with the polluted RMU:
Start and stop of partial discharge at >18kV phase-to-earth
voltage; i.e. the switchgear was free of partial discharges
during normal service.
Mechanical function tests
In order to check the correct mechanical functions the
following tests were carried out:
- Switching functions of operating mechanism
- Easy latch movement in all operating mechanisms
- Tripping of transformer switch with test fuse
- Interlocking of fuse compartment cover
- Interlocking of cable compartment covers
CIRED 18th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
The measurement of the switching time/speed of all
operating mechanisms meets the requirements of the
normal routine tests.
The a.m. tests were passed successfully
Fig. 3 shows an impression of the operating mechanism of
a ring main feeder.
Fig. 3: Driving mechanism of a ring-main feeder
Checking the condition of the insulating gas
The gas pressure was 0,5 bar (gauge), which corresponds to
rated filling pressure of a new switchgear panel. The dew-
point of the gas was less than – 30 °C, comparable to a new
switchgear.
Checking the conditions of the electrical contacts
The electrical contacts were inspected visually and showed
no sign of erosion. The three-position switch-disconnectors
and the connecting bars showed no ageing; see fig. 4.
Inspection of the SF6-vessel and mechanical parts
The visual inspection showed traces of corrosion on the
external part of the vessel in the welding area. This is only
superficial corrosion. The corrosion is completely
removable by polishing the surface.
CIRED2005
Session No 1
Turin, 6th to 9th June 2005
Fig. 4: Inside view of the examined RMU
Conclusion
As a result of this examination we can derive the
conclusion that the RMU from Siemens will have an
expected life time which is much longer than 30 years. It
also shows that the chosen design and the intensive ageing
tests, e.g. according to IEC 60932 are suitable to prove the
long time behaviour for switchgear in severe environmental
conditions.
The know-how obtained from the accumulated field
experience and the tests described in this paper are an
integral part of the continuous improvement of the product
development process and the life cycle management for
medium-voltage switchgear.
References
[1] www.siemens/medium-voltage-switchgear
[2] IEC 60694 Common clauses for high-voltages
switchgear and controlgear standards
[3] IEC 62271-200 AC metal-enclosed switchgear and
controlgear for rated voltages above 1 kV and up to and
including 52 kV
[4] IEC 60721 Series Classification of environmental
conditions
[5] IEC 60068 Basic environmental testing procedures
[6] IEC 60932 (Report) Additional requirements for
enclosed switchgear and controlgear from 1 kV
to 72.5 kV to be used in severe climatic conditions